Starting second, Percat was caught up in a first-lap tussle that made him vulnerable to drivers hustling from behind. After maintaining his composure, Percat put his head down and brought the #2 HRT Commodore home in sixth place.

Enduro teammate Cam McConville started in an unexpected 16th place but drew on experience to gain five places, leaving him just outside the lead pack in 11th.

Lead drivers, Tander and Courtney continued the team’s good form in their 20-lap race finishing third and seventh respectively.

After a day that’s seen the Championship contenders struggle, the Holden Racing Team has delivered a solid performance with both VE Commodores placed well within the top 10 for Sunday’s 161-lap endurance battle.

The Dick Smith Sandown 500 continues from 10:15am tomorrow with a 20 minute warm up session ahead of the 500km race.

Garth Tander, #2 Holden Racing Team Holden VE Commodore Series II:

“We had a good qualifying run this morning and clocked the second quickest time of the session. Nick drove well in his qualifying race and brought the car home in sixth.”

“In the second qualifying race, there were a lot of drivers that made mistakes and we managed to pass a couple of cars which means that we’ll start from third tomorrow.

“It’s going to be a long day and we’ll see what we can do over 500km.”

Nick Percat, #2 Holden Racing Team Holden VE Commodore Series II:

“It’s been a pretty good day – I finished sixth in the co-drivers race and Garth drove really well to finish third.”

“I think the car is pretty good and I’m looking forward to seeing what we can do over the longer distance.”

James Courtney, #22 Holden Racing Team Holden VE Commodore Series II:

“It was pretty crazy out there for us today. The car was not exactly as we’d have liked but we managed to hold it together in pretty action packed races to qualify seventh.”

Cam McConville, #22 Holden Racing Team Holden VE Commodore Series II:

“We struggled with front accuracy today and it’s hard to pass when you can’t get the car into the right place in the corner. That said, I think we’re in with a good showing tomorrow – we’ll throw everything at it that’s for sure!”

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